A broad campaign must be organised for the release of hundreds of students, working people and freedom fighters in Iran who have been detained by the repressive forces in recent days.

As anticipated, the anti-people and dictatorial theocratic regime of Iran have proceeded to deploy large squads of the Guards Corps, Basij militia and the mercenaries of the security forces to violently repress the protest movement of the youth and working people of our nation. As has been the case in recent years, the response of the heads of the dictatorial regime to the people - who are frustrated by the poverty, deprivation, oppression, corruption and lack of freedom - is to accuse them of association with foreign powers and then fire at and detain them. According to the latest reports received, more than 1500 protesters have been arrested by the security forces of the despotic regime, hundreds have been injured and tens of people have lost their lives during the protests. Yet the popular protests continue across the nation. Tens of militant and freedom-loving students are among the detainees.

Although the roar of the people’s protest can be responded to by bullets here and there and thus inevitably silenced awhile, contrary to the perceptions and will of the heads of the Islamic regime, the strategic demands of the popular protests cannot be crushed through intimidation and suppression forever - demands such as rejecting the despotic theocratic regime; an end to the rule of a bunch of dark-minded, inhumane characters; an end to the oppression and economic injustice resulting from the following and application of neoliberal policies; an end to the unprecedented corruption in the regime and government apparatus; and the establishing of a free, sovereign and democratic Iran. The demand for fundamental changes in the governance of the country from a political system based on the absolute dictatorship of the Supreme Religious Leader is that of the majority of the people of Iran. This is a system whose irrational policies over recent decades have been disastrous for our nation - a system underpinned by neoliberal capitalist socio-economics that has destroyed the productive infrastructure of the country and has driven Iran to unprecedented levels of poverty and deprivation - a system oriented towards, indeed dominated by, rent and brokerage relations and one that concentrates the vast of the country’s economy in the hands of rentiers and a parasitic capitalist mafia, namely the heads of the Guards Corps, the Basij militia force and other security forces. This demand of the people of Iran cannot materialise without a change in the current rulers and the establishment of a government based on the people’s will.

In recent days and alongside the heroic struggle of our nation in various cities, the Tudeh Party of Iran has consistently stated that in order to force the dictatorship to retreat and prepare the conditions for fundamental, democratic and sustainable changes in our country, the united action of all social strata - from the workers and working people to the militant youth, students and women, as well as the freedom-loving and progressive forces - is decisive and instrumental. Without having and presenting a clear and democratic alternative for the current despotic regime, it is not possible to bring together all the layers and forces of the society and challenge the continuation of the dictatorial regime in Iran under a minimum program based on the demands of freedom, social justice, bread, jobs and housing.Fighting for the release of all the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience - whose ranks are once more swelled by the large number of protesters detained by the regime over recent days - is one of the most important and urgent tasks of the protest movement and all the progressive and freedom-loving forces of the nation. We cannot allow the regime to force the detained activists to make baseless and forged confessions in its courts or media through both physical and mental torture with impunity - as has been its conventional and typical recourse in dealing with opposition. According to reliable reports received, the interrogators and torturers of the regime’s security apparatus are conjuring and preparing scenarios to force the prisoners - who have no access to lawyers and legal advice - to recant through coercion and torture. The freeing of the detained activists from the claws of the dictatorship would be a great victory for the popular movement and a heavy defeat for the regime and its supporters.

We call upon all the freedom-loving and progressive forces of Iran and the world to do all they can to collate and release the names of all the detainees and the places where they are imprisoned, and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all of them. Launching international campaigns, continuing to pressure the regime, organising protest demonstrations and gathering people in front of the prisons to keep vigil and demand the release of the detainees, in the days when the flames of the mass protests are still burning across the country, is a priority.

A salute to all the militant workers, working people, youth, students and women who are detained in the regime’s prisons!

Free all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally!

Victory to the united struggle of the people of Iran against the ruling dictatorial regime!